Directors & Advisors

Our directors and advisors are distinguished experts in the field who, based on years of knowledge and experience as leaders in this industry, offer guidance, wisdom and strategy that keep ChannelNet at the forefront of customer-focused digital marketing.

Paula George Tompkins

CEO & Founder, ChannelNet LLC, Board of Directors

Paula Tompkins is a strategic visionary with a deep understanding of marketing and technology. Her 30-plus-year career encompasses the full spectrum of marketing, from direct mail and call centers to multi-channel and omnichannel experiences. She is an authority on leveraging digital touch points to drive store traffic. An inventor, Tompkins holds two U.S. patents for ChannelNet’s SiteBuilder^TM software technology.

She started her career as a commercial banker in 1974 with a stint on Wall Street at the Bank of New York. Abandoning Wall Street in 1975, she went on to break gender barriers at both 3M and General Electric (GE) industrial sales divisions ... More

“Having pioneered multichannel solutions over 30 years ago, I am delighted that ChannelNet is still at the forefront of customer interactions online.”

Rick Crandall

Board of Directors and Advisory Board

Rick Crandall is recognized as “One of the 5 Leading Pioneers of the Computer Industry.” He currently holds the positions of the chairman of the board of directors of Pelstar, LLC, as well as chairman and founder of the Enterprise Software CEO Roundtable, a group of CEOs of the 50 largest firms in the software industry. In addition, he serves on the board of directors to nine other businesses.

Crandall's accomplishments are many. In his past role as chairman of Novell, Inc., he oversaw the sale of the company to a trio of private equity firms and managed the simultaneous sale of its patent library to a consortium comprised of Microsoft, Apple Computer ... More

“Any company in almost any industry must now realize that customer engagement and communication is critically dependent on multiple communication platforms including print, web and social media. ChannelNet multi-channel marketing software and services have pioneered enabling major-brand companies to migrate their marketing campaigns and customer contact into the digital world.”

Alfred B. Ford

Board of Directors and Advisory Board

Alfred Ford is a director of the Ford Family Office, an active member of the Family Office Exchange, and a trustee of the Ford Motor Company Fund. In 1978, he founded Ramayan Arts, Inc., an East Indian arts gallery, and in 1985 was named one of the top collectors in America by Arts and Antiques magazine.

Alfred is the vice-chair of the Josephine Ford Cancer Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. Continuing the legacy of his great grandfather Henry Ford, Mr. Ford along with his wife, Dr. Sharmila Bhattacharya, PhD, are visionary entrepreneurs and philanthropists both in the United states and India, with deep strategic interests in improving global health ... More

“Since 1985, Paula has been on the cutting edge of technology, connecting customers to OEMs. Her company has survived tech bubbles and economic meltdowns due to the tenacity of its CEO and founder, Paula Tompkins. She has shown the skill and adaptability to survive and succeed in a fast moving ever changing tech landscape, not easy for anyone, but especially a woman in a male dominated business world.”

Dean Hovey

Advisory Board

Dean Hovey has founded 11 high tech companies over the past 30 years from his base in Silicon Valley. He is known for his creativity, product design acumen and customer insights as well as for his early work designing the mouse for the Apple Computer. He is the co-founder of Comprendo, IDEO and most recently Digifit, Inc., a comprehensive cardio fitness and health tracking system for Apple devices. Hovey has held several senior executive positions in public companies and is a venture capitalist. Dean received his B.S. and M.S. in general engineering, product design from Stanford University.

“Simplicity isn't easy. But when you experience it — it seems so obvious. You appreciate it. You want it. Delivering products and solutions in a multichannel marketplace is complicated. To succeed, you must simplify. It starts with understanding the relationships between the elements of your network. Relationship design is the precursor to a great experience design. 30 years of digital innovation and adaptation is the essence of ChannelNet. Their people, tools and technology help companies identify, design and implement multichannel networks. ChannelNet manages multichannel complexity so you can harvest the rewards of simplicity.”

Sam Inman III

Advisory Board Executive Chairman

Sam Inman is the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Covisint, a publicly-traded B2B Cloud company. He has an extensive career in technology leadership roles, supplemented by strong strategic growth and board experiences. From 2008 to 2011, he was President and CEO of Comarco Wireless Technologies, a California-based, provider of innovative mobile power and test solutions. At Comarco, he drove revenue from $6 million to $32 million in three years. Previous to Comarco, Mr. Inman was Executive Chairman of Think Outside; Co-CEO and Chairman for Viking Components, Inc.; CEO and President of Centura Software Corporation; President and COO of Ingram Micro and President of IBM PC Company, Americas.

He earned a B.A. in mathematics from Purdue University.

“Paula and her company have always been on the cutting edge. The company’s innovation stems from its deep expertise. Most companies are either a marketing agency or an IT shop. ChannelNet is both, and that is rare.”

Kevin Kelly

Advisory Board

Prior to joining the Board of Directors for ChannelNet, Kevin served as the company’s Chief Financial Officer for nearly ten years. Kevin has also held CFO positions at Nexiq Technologies, a publicly traded producer of diagnostic hardware and software for commercial vehicles, and RapportNET, a start-up company providing Internet-based wealth management services. In addition to the core finance and accounting activities, these positions included responsibility for SEC reporting, shareholder communications, fundraising, due diligence, and all aspects of managing a start-up company. ... More

“Congratulations to Paula and ChannelNet for thirty years of constantly evolving their products and services to provide clients with leading edge, technology based tools for building personalized relationships with their customers.”

Peter Tierney

Advisory Board

Peter Tierney is currently the president of Firethorn Consulting, which focuses on strategic and operational planning assistance for technology-related businesses. Previously, he was CEO of Finaplex Incorporated, a leading provider of Wealth Relationship Management systems to the financial services industry. Prior to joining Finaplex, he served as chairman, president, and CEO of Sawyer Media Systems, which produced television documentaries for NBC and its affiliates and offered a web based software platform for video distribution and presentation. He also has served as chairman, president, and CEO of MarketFirst and of Inference Corporation (NASDAQ: INFR), a leading provider of self-service and knowledge management tools ... More

“For 30 years, ChannelNet has been empowering its clients to serve their customers in the best way possible, by constantly creating and delivering innovative solutions. The company has shown a remarkable ability to withstand market changes due to their clear understanding of multi-channel marketing and distribution. Deep expertise is why they have persisted as a successful company.”

AJ Wagner

Advisory Board

A.J. Wagner has extensive experience managing all aspects of multi-billion dollar companies from risk management to sales, marketing, business development and operations. Currently, he is President and CEO of A.J. Wagner & Associates, LLC, a business consulting service. He provides consulting services to corporations as well as Wall Street and has advised more than 300 private equity and hedge fund managers on the auto and auto lending industry. He also serves as an independent director for a number of organizations — Walter Energy (NYSE:WLT), Inc., Exeter Finance Corporation, Inilex, Inc. and Starfish Family Services.

Prior to founding his own company in 2007, he was the President of Ford Motor Credit North America, Vice President of Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and Chairman of Ford Credit Canada Ltd. He was the Ford Executive Champion for the United Way, Habitat for Humanity and Heart Disease Research. In 2006, Wagner received the Philip E. Benton Award from the Minority Dealer Association for his efforts to foster diversity and support minority dealers.

Wagner received the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Wisconsin—LaCrosse, where he received his bachelor’s degree. He has an MBA from the University of Detroit Mercy.

“With over 40 years in the Automotive Industry, I've seen that most OEM's have at least four separate systems to communicate with consumers. Typically, these systems are not integrated and do not combine efforts to drive owner loyalty, resulting in a barrage of overlapping and poorly timed communications to consumers.

The most cost effective solution that I've seen that solves this issue and improves customer loyalty is ChannelNet’s PURLs (personalized URLs). PURLs integrate the OEM’s systems as well as the dealer’s inventory systems. This enables the OEM to offer well-timed, personalized offers and incentives based on existing inventory.”

Barbara L. Whittaker

Advisory Board

Barbara L. Whittaker has been a director and advisor for publicly-traded, private and nonprofit organizations. She has served as a senior executive in two public companies and on several boards. As President and founder of BW Limited LLC, she assists companies with developing, accelerating and executing business and procurement strategies. She recently formed Diversity Connections LLC, a joint venture, which provides minority business enterprises with strategies for improving their operations and raising capital.

Some of the two-time entrepreneur's clients are ACS (a Xerox company), Hollingsworth Global Logistics, Minacs, Aribia and The Rush Group.

Prior to starting her own company, Ms. Whittaker worked for ... More

“As Bill Gates was to Microsoft and Steve Jobs was to Apple, Paula Tompkins is to digital marketing for customer relationship management (CRM). The model the company developed to streamline customer communications is unique and continues to serve many business needs. ChannelNet continues to evolve its products and its client base as the scope of CRM expands. As a board member, it has been fascinating to watch and advise the company on its growth trajectory.”

Emory Winship

Advisory Board

Emory Winship is the founding principal of KB Strategic Advisors, a consultancy that helps early- to mid-stage companies with strategic planning and funding requirements to accelerate growth. He has over 20 years' executive marketing management experience in the brokerage (Charles Schwab), banking (Hibernia Bank), advertising (Cunningham & Walsh), and e-commerce (TranSettlements) industries.

At Schwab, Mr. Winship was responsible for creating AdvisorSource, a marketing partnership of independent financial advisors that has over $7 billion in assets under management, and Custom Broker, an investor service platform that integrates brokers, customers, and personalized market data. ... More

“ChannelNet’s list of customers say more about the company than I ever could. The list is a who’s who of client-obsessed leaders in the automotive, finance and the home furnishing industries. The continued requests for more software and more services from virtually every customer just adds an exclamation point to the stories they tell.”